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How far back is the Ohio Department of Transportation pushing future phases of Downtown highway
reconstruction?

Today’s toddlers will be navigating barrels and barricades on their way to classes at Columbus
State Community College, nights out in the Arena District and jobs at the Statehouse.

After finishing the I-71/670 interchange in 2014, ODOT will call a halt to Downtown ramp
closings and lane restrictions, according to a plan forwarded yesterday to an ODOT advisory
panel.

Instead of moving on immediately from that project to reconstruction of the I-70/71 interchange
near Nationwide Children’s Hospital, ODOT would start that work in 2025 under its new timetable.
Other pieces of the massive rebuild would start as late as 2032 and 2033.

ODOT has been promising too much, Director Jerry Wray said. He estimated that the list of major
highway projects across Ohio is $11.6 billion too big.

Costs are rising, Wray said, and a decline in gasoline consumption means less gas-tax money to
pay for it all. And political standoffs in Washington over a new highway-spending bill make federal
help uncertain.

Wray said it’s time for a dose of reality.

“We are providing an honest assessment of what can be done with the amount of money available,”
he said.

ODOT’s nine-member Transportation Review Advisory Council is to vote on the new plan in April or
May.

In all, ODOT proposes pushing back 34 projects that had been planned to start by 2017 to dates
as far off as 2036.

In northeastern Ohio, future phases of work on Cleveland’s I-90 Innerbelt would be delayed four
to 19 years. They had been scheduled for as soon as 2014.

In southwestern Ohio, projects along I-75 would be delayed five to 14 years.

Other delays would affect relocation of Rt. 24 in northwestern Ohio, upgrades to I-75 through
downtown Dayton, and enhanced bus service in Canton.

• Adding a lane to N. High Street/Rt. 23 between Flint and Lazelle roads on the Far North Side
would be pushed back five years, to 2019.

• Improving and redesigning the area around I-270, Rt. 315 and Rt. 23 on the North Side would be
delayed 13 to 16 years, with the last phase starting in 2030.

• Upgrading Rt. 33 in Franklin and Fairfield counties and building a new interchange between
Groveport and Canal Winchester would be delayed 19 years, to 2036.

“We’re putting the house much more in order than we have before,” Wray said.

State and local officials began planning for the I-70/71 rebuild in 2001, and work began in
September on the I-71/670 interchange on the northeastern edge of Downtown.

Reconstruction of interchanges, roads, ramps and bridges along the eastern and southern edges of
Downtown already had been scheduled to last at least a decade.

Stretching out work for another two decades will have consequences, said Bob Lawler,
transportation director for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

“In addition to being a congestion problem, it’s going to continue to be a safety problem,” he
said. “It’s an issue of the reliability of the transit system.”

Downtown highways were built to handle half as much traffic as they handle today, and they
average two to three crashes daily. The reconstruction projects were designed to reduce crashes,
eliminate weaving traffic and relieve congestion.

Jack Marchbanks, a member of the ODOT advisory panel and a former district director for the
agency’s central Ohio office, said the state will continue to fix potholes, replace guardrails and
make other repairs.

The delays affect projects designed to boost the capacity of Ohio highways, he said.

Wray said the phases of the Downtown highway construction are designed to be completed
separately, and the delays won’t add to congestion.